


Still Running

by DreamingIce



Series: 2012 iPod Shuffle ficlets [7]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angels of Manhattan tag, Demons Run, F/M, Gen, iPod challenge, lost family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-22 04:33:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2494592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamingIce/pseuds/DreamingIce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snapshots of DW characters, largely Pond-centric, but 1st drabble is from S2.</p><p>Originally written as part of a multifandom challenge in 2012 - 10 songs from my iPod on shuffle=5 ficlets from various fandoms each month, every month.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Risk Taking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jackie wonders and worries.
> 
>  **Characters:** Jackie Tyler  
>  **Timeframe:** somewhere in season 2  
>  **Musical Theme:** Aquarius – Within Temptation  
>  _They say I'm seeking out the danger.  
>  That one day you won't let me go,  
> I'll drown, you'll take me down._

Jackie Tyler is by no means a stupid woman.

She isn't academically gifted, but her knowledge of people has served her well during her life.

Rose is her world, and as much as she wants her daughter to be everything she herself could never be, she wants to keep her safe and protected.

The Doctor was a direct threat to her Rose's safety. She knows that. She's seen it in action. But during Rose's association with the infuriating man, Jackie has seen her girl blossom into a strong minded woman with drive. And she is so immensely  _proud_  of this woman that her daughter has become. And begrudgingly, she will credit part of this change in her daughter to the Doctor.

But somewhere in her heart, she knows this can't last. One of these days, Rose is going to step into that blue box, and she won't see her again.

And Rose will never leave the Doctor. Jackie knows that Rose has fallen in love with him.

All she can do know is eye the lanky alien each time, imploring him to bring her daughter back to her again.


	2. Birthdays are Complicated Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Good days don't end well for River.
> 
>  **Characters:** River Song, Rory Williams  
>  **Timeframe:** A Good Man Goes to War  
>  **Musical Theme:** The Lottery Ticket – BSG mini-series soundtrack

River is still riding the high from her birthday date as she waltzes back to her cell, her mind deliciously occupied.

Rory Williams in the garb of a Roman centurion is not what she expects to find.

The look on his face drives the happy thoughts from her head rapidly, although she tries to hold on to them, and she finds herself babbling uncharacteristically.

_Her birthday._

She checks her diary on reflex, but it all clicked into place in her mind already.

_Demon's Run._

River cannot face him as he explains the basics of what she already knows. She can't stand to see the look on his face when she admits she can't help. When Rory presses her as to why, she manages to string out a coherent answer, drawing on her past conversations with him (from his timestream, at least), gives as much information as she can.

She can't express that her terror is not just from the Doctor finding out who she is, but himself and Amy finding out that the infant they tried so hard to find is already gone. In many ways, she has feared this confrontation with her parents as much as anything she has admitted to any living soul.

Oh, she wishes she could go, change her own story, and that of her parents. But her story as already been written, the paradox created would be horrendous, and quite possibly deadly.

For all of time's fluidity, it is still a harsh mistress.

After Rory leaves, muttering and a scowl plastered on his face, River finds herself curled into a corner, tears tracking down her face. She rarely allows herself these moments of indulgence and self-pity, but today, is surely one of those days. She tries to enjoy the time she gets to spend with Amy and Rory in their messed up timelines, but the pain never really leaves.

River Song cries. She cries for Amy and Rory, but mostly, she cries for Melody Pond, and the life she never had.


	3. These Broken Wishes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There wasn't much Rory wasn't prepared to do for his family. To find it was all for naught was gut-wrenching.
> 
>  **Characters:** Rory Williams  
>  **Timeframe:** A Good Man Goes to War  
>  **Theme:** The Vision – Immediate Music

For a couple of hours, they thought that they had been victorious.

He'd held his daughter (it still seemed so surreal. He suddenly has a  _daughter_ ), embraced his wife again, and the three of them were suddenly a  _family_.

There had been a thrill of fear run through him when Madame Vastra had commented, "My friend, you have never risen higher."

" _He'll rise higher than ever before, then fall so much further,"_  River's voice echoed in his memory.

But he'd pushed it aside, caught up in the moment, holding his family close and not wanting to consider that they could be split apart again.

But it was a foolish thought.

Lorna Bucket's warning was only the beginning. He should have gotten Amy and Melody into the TARDIS straight away, but hindsight is a bitch.

Battle joined, nowhere to hide except some storage boxes. Rory looses himself into the fury of battle, taking down any one that heads for his wife and daughter, letting the memories of the roman centurion lead him through the fight.

Then he hears Amy scream.

Amy has never screamed like that before in her life.

He finds her in hysterics, clutching the swaddling that had contained their daughter, but is now covered with a horribly familiar goo.

Melody had never really been here at all.

They'd lost before they'd even started.

His knees give out beneath him as he cries with his wife.


	4. Stories Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brian Williams needs an explaination. His granddaughter tries to provide one.
> 
>  **Characters:** River Song, 11th Doctor, Brian Williams  
>  **Timeframe:** Post Angels of Manhattan  
>  **Theme:** Never Let Me Go – Florence + The Machine  
>  _And it's peaceful in the deep  
>  Cathedral where you cannot breathe  
> No need to pray  
> No need to speak_

They shouldn't have stuck around in the graveyard.

But it's too late to change that now. River has lost her parents once again, and the Doctor has lost more friends.

She at least can contact them again. It's the Doctor she worries about. She can't stay with him now. They both need their space to grieve, so to speak.

But there is a visit the Doctor has to make.

He once promised Brian Williams that he'd bring Amy and Rory back safe. He does not like the thought of telling Brian that they aren't coming back.

River has come with him for this last trip to Leadsworth.

Brian is relatively unfussed by the TARDIS appearance in his living room, but his face shifts when Amy and Rory fail to appear.

"What happened, Doctor?" he asks quietly.

The Doctor and River do their best to explain New York, and luckily Brian seems to be following it. They left out how exactly they'd broken the paradox at Winter Quay, though.

Brian's face is still pale as he mulls over the information.

"They are alive, though?" he whispers.

River nods. "Yes, they are alive," she confirms.

"But they can't come back here."

"I'm sorry," River replied sadly.

The three sat in silence for a while, before Brian looked at River suddenly and asked "And who are you?"

River's mouth twisted in to a wry smile. "It's complicated," she warned. "But I'm your granddaughter."

Brian just blinked at her, disbelief written on his face.

"We'll need a while to get through this story..."


End file.
